June 6/08 6:51 am - Fort William World Cup: 4X report, full results and photos

The third round of the 4-cross Mountain Bike World Cup got underway this evening under a most un-Scottish sunny sky. Fort William has a seven year tradition of top-notch racing, however, great weather is NOT one of the attributes which springs to mind when regulars think of 'Fort Bill'. A steady breeze even kept the biting midge flies away during the race.

The competition saw two newcomers move to the top step of the podium - former world champion Jana Horakova (Suzuki-RB) took her first ever World Cup win in the women's race, while Jared Graves (Yeti-Fox) won only the second World Cup of his career, and the first since 2005. The World Cup leaders stayed the same - Guido Tschugg (Fusion) for the men and Anneke Beerten (MS-Intense) for the women.

The course was almost unchanged from last year's world championships, with lots of bumps, fast berms , and the possibility to pass even on the lower parts of the run. The course is more 'BMX-like' than many, which may help explain the appearance of both Graves and Michal Prokop (Author) in the final. Both have been racing BMX for the last eight months, as they - successfully - qualified for Beijing last weekend at the World Championships in China, and the eight months both say that they have had off the mountain bike appears to have made little difference to their speed.

In the men's final, there were local hopes that last week's winner Dan Atherton (Animal Commencal) could repeat his victory, as he went up against Graves, Prokop and Dutch rider Joost Wichman (Cannondale). And Atherton did battle all the way down the course, but it was with Wichman for second, which he eventually lost.

That's because Graves was well out in front from the moment the gate dropped. "It was my smoothest lap of the day," he commented. "In the others I had some contact with riders on the way down, but this one was completely clean. I had a good start, took the lead, and led it start to finish; it was clean."

Behind, Prokop went out of contention on the first corner, after his foot slipped off a pedal and (he claims) he got an elbow in the ribs from Wichman. Wichman jumped into second, Atherton challenged out of the second corner but couldn't complete the pass. Tschugg won the small final for fifth, to keep the leader's jersey, but Atherton is closing in, only 50 points behind now.

In the women's race, American Melissa Buhl (KHS) qualified first, after World Cup leader (and winner of the first two rounds) Beerten flatted and finished 14th out of 16 starters.

Beerten recovered in the heats to make it into the final with Horakova, Rachel Seydoux (Switzerland) and Buhl, but Horakova was showing through her runs that she was a force to be reckoned with tonight. After Beerten made a rare mistake in the start and dropped out of contention, it was Horakova's all the way - although, even if Beerten had had her usual strong start it might have made no difference; since the Czech rider was having a perfect night.

"I had a really good gate and took the lead, but even then I was worried about the first and third turns because they were loose and it would have been easy to crash. But this track ... I like it, because it is more BMX style."

Seydoux took seond, followed but Beerten and Buhl in fourth. Czech Romana Labounkova took the small final for the fifth and final podium spot.